Top picks from the Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Updated 2:59 AM ET, Fri September 2, 2016

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Adidas x Parley running shoe – This running shoe is a true collaboration (Adidas' sustainability team, design team, Alexander Taylor, Parley for the Oceans and Sea Shepherd are all nominated). The design with Parley is the first running shoe to use illegal deep-sea gillnets and recycled ocean plastic. It's exclusive though -- only 100 pairs were made

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

The Beazley Designs of the Year enters its ninth incarnation with a raft of new nominees for 2016. Bringing together all fields of design, the awards celebrate elegance and excellence, but also practical solutions which may well become the staples of our future lives.Pictured: BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, VIA 57 West. Ingels' firm steers clear of Manhattan's traditional silhouettes, occupying a spot on the island's periphery with a sharp, scooped out structure so bold it requires a new word to define it: the "courtscraper".

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Jonathan Barnbrook, Blackstar – David Bowie's parting gift for his adoring fans was not only beautiful to listen to, but beautiful to look at. Barnbrook's Unicode Blackstar symbol adorned the album cover and marketing material. The design became open sourced after Bowie's death, allowing it to spread, like his music, around the world.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Space Cup – Life without gravity gets complicated pretty fast, and some previous solutions were pretty inelegant. For instance until now astronauts were reliant upon drinking through straws. No more, however. A team at the NASA Johnson Space Center and the IRPI LLC devised the Space Cup, utilizing capillary forces and surface tension to replicate an Earth-like drinking experience aboard the International Space Station.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Apple and TBWA/Media Arts Lab, Shot on iPhone: World Gallery – Apple's advertising campaign celebrating the iPhone's camera and the lives of their users around the world demonstrated our changing relationship with the medium -- and helped shift millions of handsets.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

MAD Architects, Harbin Opera House – Designed as an architectural extension of the Songhua River in Heilongjiang, China, the Harbin Opera House's curvilinear design echoes into the interior, with a Grand Theater lobby bending forms with Hadidesque aplomb.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Brian Gartside, Aaron Stephenson and Dr Theresa Dankovic, Drinkable Book – The Drinkable Book certainly lives up to its name. The text provides lifesaving information about of water issues and crises, while its pages are made of germ-killing silver filter paper. One filter can purify 100 liters of water.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Grafton Architects, Arena for Learning, UTEC, Lima, Peru – A university campus building likened to a man-made cliff, its tiered structure is not unlike the terraces of Machu Picchu and designed with external circulation throughout.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Lars Larsen, Bjarke Ingels and Jens Martin Skibsted, OKO e-bike – One of the lightest bikes in the world with a carbon-fibre frame and an even weight distribution, the OKO is a departure from the normal back-heavy electronic two-wheelers.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Marshmallow Laser Feast, In the Eyes of the Animal – Want to live like a dragonfly, if only for a few moments? The augmented reality conjured up by Marshmallow Laser Feast allows you to see through the -- often enhanced -- eyes of forest animals and experience nature from a totally different perspective.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

OMA, Fondazione Prada – OMA has transformed an early twentieth century distillery in Milan into a unusual complex featuring a exhibition pavilion, tower and cinema. A worthy addition to the Prada empire, complimenting its extensive art holdings.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Herzog & de Meuron, Tate Modern Switch House – The Southbank has a neo-brutalist addition to its skyline with the Switch House, the late but well received extension to Tate Modern. Keeping close to the style of the original power station's brickwork, architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron's extruded shape provides a multitude of open, well lit spaces.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Kodak Super 8 camera – Yves Behar, Illgu Cha, Sarah Neurnberger, Steven Overman and Danielle Atkins are all nominated for their new take on a retro classic. A childhood favorite of the likes of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director JJ Abrams, the iconic Kodak camera makes a return 50 years after it was introduced with dual analog and digital capabilities.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Amanda Pinatih and Jorge Mañes Rubio, Design Museum Dharavi – Based in the three kilometer square neighborhood of Dharavi, Mumbai, the design museum is a first, featuring a nomadic exhibition space, promoting design as a tool for social change and innovation.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Ben Alun-Jones, Hal Watts & Kirsty Emery, Unmade – While some top designers are veering towards off the peg convenience, Unmade is a London-based fashion start up creating bespoke knitwear you can edit online: designed by the designer, edited by you.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Vidhi Mehta, Post/Biotics – A lab in a box is not a new concept, but Post/Biotics allows the public to test natural substances in the search for new antibiotics -- vital research for scientists confronted by increasingly resistant strains.

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Photos:Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 nominees

Craig Green, Spring/Summer 2015 – Zen was the buzzword for Green's creations, evoking images of samurai, gurus and purity. With no interviews or accompanying words after the show, the designer's work remains as mysterious as a geisha's smile.

Alejandro Magallanes, Almadía book covers – Magallanes found inspiration in Almadía's archives when drawing up his distinct covers, toying with the absurd but keeping it light with his use of bold primary colors.